IDFA Special: Hale County This Morning, This Evening

On Thursday May 17 IDFA organizes a special preview of Hale County This Morning, This Evening in Pathé Tuschinski. This film will also be screened during IDFA 2018. Afterwards IDFA’s new artistic director Orwa Nyrabia speaks with film director RaMell Ross.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a sometimes funny, but often touching portrait of an Afro-American community in the American South – a region known for its history of slavery and poverty. The film recently debuted and won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the Sundance Film Festival.

Over a period of five years Ross follows the college basketball player Daniel Collins, the young father Quincy Bryant and the people around them. He does this with the intimate perspective of an insider in a poetic flowing and impressionistic style. The editing is associative, non-linear and a series of moments: a child running in circles, three girls who are singing outside in the evening, basketballers training but also a birth and a funeral. Ross invites the viewer to decide for themselves what meaning may lie behind it all.

After the screening, artistic director Orwa Nyrabia will speak with the filmmaker about his perspective and experiences in Hale County. According to Nyrabia, "Ross is part of a new wave that is turning the table and abolishing mainstream prejudice of what the audience wants".